The PSOE announces fines for the consumption of prostitution and street harassment

That the city councils promote ordinances that include sanctions for the consumption of prostitution and street harassment of women. These are some of the measures that the PSOE has presented during its Municipal Convention that is being held this weekend in Valencia and that are included in its Framework Program for the municipal elections in May. In a document consisting of 80 measures, the Socialists dedicate a broad package of initiatives to equality policies and against the gender gap.

Point 46 of that Framework Program refers to “Zero tolerance for the promotion of prostitution” and specifies “fines for those who consume sexual services and a ban on advertising that encourages prostitution in all municipalities.” In their proposal, the Socialists explain that “the demand for sexual services is the determining element of the existence of this serious manifestation of violence against women.”

“For this reason, we will penalize the conduct of those who violate the Human Rights of women in situations of prostitution, trafficking and sexual exploitation, considering them as mere objects of consumption”, says the document, which specifies that, “through municipal ordinances, we will prohibit also the placement, distribution, dissemination and/or diffusion of publicity that promotes, favors or encourages the consumption of prostitution and the sexual exploitation of women, the market of prostitution and sexual tourism”. For the moment, the PSOE law for the abolition of prostitution remains bogged down in Congress during its parliamentary process.

In their program of proposals, the Socialists also propose, in view of the May 28 elections, the creation of ordinances to fine street harassment as a prevention of gender violence. “Street harassment is the most normalized form of gender violence,” reads the document, which adds: “We will create ordinances that make it possible to denounce this type of attitudes and behaviors against women or against people who feel harassed in public spaces. This gender discrimination causes fear and insecurity among girls and young people and directly affects their rights, limiting their mobility, freedom and education”.

In the chapter on Equality politicians, the PSOE also proposes initiatives against bullying and lgtbiphobia in schools, permanent purple points in areas for specialized and comprehensive care for victims of gender violence or urban planning with a gender perspective to to address “safety and the reduction of the perception of risk at night”.

More solar panels, less tourist flats

Access to public services and the right to housing or environmental protection with sustainability policies are other notable sections of the PSOE Framework Program. Against the emptying of the urban centers of neighbors in favor of tourist occupation, the Socialists propose a generalized regulation of tourist apartments that stops the increase in rents. And they commit to the installation of solar panels in all public and private car parks, in the style of what is already carried out in the Balearic Islands.

The framework program also sets out proposals for social protection. The Socialists commit, for example, to promote payment cards aimed at vulnerable families for food, clothing and hygiene products. “Some social services where economic benefits can be collected through bank cards that reduce stigmatization. The city council establishes economic amounts per family to spend in commercial establishments in the town that have previously applied to join the program. These businesses will only be able to provide basic and essential products ”, it is exposed.

Also at the municipal level, the Program includes the creation of a municipal “Erasmus” for secondary school students. “We will promote the experience abroad of young people from the municipality with the creation of study scholarships, in collaboration and coordination with the schools, which will design the activity and request it. In this way, we will promote the granting of economic aid, in order to mitigate social inequality in access to language learning and the promotion of the culture of students through the exchange of experiences and coexistence with young people from other countries during a minimum of 10 days and a minimum of 10 students, destined for any country outside of Spain whose first language in which the activity is carried out is English”.

The chapter on social services also includes the creation of a “municipal UME” for situations of social emergency or humanitarian aid. “We will create specialized Civil Protection units for the implementation of plans aimed at generating the necessary measures for anticipation, prevention, planning and immediate response to emergencies and preserve the public safety of all citizens, especially those who live in municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants, the most vulnerable in these circumstances as a general rule.